The Upstairs Room

When the German army occupied Holland, Annie de Leeuw was eight years old. Because she was Jewish, the occupation put her in grave danger-she knew that to stay alive she would have to hide. Fortunately, a Gentile family, the Oostervelds, offered to help. For two years they hid Annie and her sister, Sini, in the cramped upstairs room of their farmhouse. Most people thought the war wouldn't last long. But for Annie and Sini -- separated from their family and confined to one tiny room -- the war seemed to go on forever. In the part of the marketplace where flowers had been sold twice a week-tulips in the spring, roses in the summer-stood German tanks and German soldiers. Annie de Leeuw was eight years old in 1940 when the Germans attacked show more Holland and marched into the town of Winterswijk where she lived. Annie was ten when, because she was Jewish and in great danger of being captured by the invaders, she and her sister Sini had to leave their father, mother, and older sister Rachel to go into hiding in the upstairs room of a remote farmhouse .Johanna de Leeuw Reiss has written a remarkably fresh and moving account of her own experiences as a young girl during World War II. Like many adults she was innocent of the German plans for Jews, and she might have gone to a labor camp as scores of families did. It won't be for long and the Germans have told us we'll be treated well, those families said. What can happen? They did not know, and they could not imagine.... But millions of Jews found out. Mrs. Reiss's picture of the Oosterveld family with whom she lived, and of Annie and Sini, reflects a deep spirit of optimism, a faith in the ingenuity, backbone, and even humor with which ordinary human beings meet extraordinary challenges. In the steady, matter-of-fact, day-by-day courage they all showed lies a profound strength that transcends the horrors of the long and frightening war. Here is a memorable book, one that will be read and reread for years to come. show less

Read because it's a Newbery Honor. Good for children, esp. as a counterpoint to Anne Frank because the narrator is younger, and survives (to write this narrative memoir). I'd probably like it more if I were a child, or a fan of historical fiction, or whatever, so sorry I didn't more.

My library copy looks like it's been read at least a couple of dozen times, maybe twice that. Maybe by homeschooling families, maybe by young fans of HF.

I feel kind of bad for not giving this book a higher rating, but this story just did not resonate to me. Yes, I know the author was just a child, and she wrote about this three decades after it happened, but there was something about the narrative/writing style that just... didn't work for me.

There's also a lot of detail missing, so even though the narrator and her sister spent over two years in the titular Upstairs Room, it was hard to get a feel of the place, I would have liked some more detail on their life, if they ever observed Hanukah and other Jewish holidays in hiding, etc.

Think Diary of Anne Frank, but written after the fact, when the Annie of this story was an adult. For this reason, I think, the writing isn't as compelling (and, of course, her story isn't as tragic), although the story is still so important, and this one may be more readable for young kids.

Memoir by a young Jewish girl of being hidden from the Nazis during World War II. The more I read the more I appreciated this story, and felt it should be required reading by adolescents. Nothing graphic, but violence is mentioned in passing, such as knowing that relatives getting on the trains to work camps will never come back.

From the first time I read the book (and I’ve read it many times), I bonded closely with Annie, the first person narrator. The story begins in 1938 when the protagonist Annie de Leeuw (Johanna’s name as a child) is six years old and just beginning to hear about the problems that Hitler is bringing to her world.

Four years later, in late summer 1942, Annie and her older sister Sini go into hiding with a non-Jewish Dutch family, the Oostervelds. Annie and Sini are cared for by Dientje, Opoe, and particularly by Johan Oosterveld, who is a loving man of strong character. Their father and oldest sister Rachel hide elsewhere during the war. Their mother died in the hospital of kidney disease just after they went into hiding.

The girls live show more in an upstairs room (hence, the title), but they have to crawl into the back of a closet when anyone else comes near the house. Imagine what happens when the Nazis decide to make the house their headquarters . . . .

This book is for 5th to 8th graders, but a good reader that is mature could read it when a little younger. And you can’t be too old for this book. show less

Good children's book about a Jewish family living in Holland during WWII. Because they didn't leave Europe early enough to reach the United States, they now need to find hiding spaces to keep safe from the nazis.

Annie and Sini are offered space in the home of the Oostervelds, on their farm. For 2 years they cannot go out and live normally but they are fortunate that the family is kind, hard-working and willing to put themselves in danger on their behalf.

We learn how the sisters feel about having to hide, not going out, or to school, and missing their father and sister.

Finally the war is over and their sister Rachel arrives to take them home. Eventually each sister leaves home to move on with their lives.

Sad and sweet.